ON PRO FOOTBALL

ON PRO FOOTBALL; The Future Isn't Now For the Jets and Giants

By Timothy W. Smith

Published: September 12, 1995

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.—
After both the Jets and Giants blew large leads and lost in overtime on Sunday, dropping to 0-2, someone quipped that there are now two major cities in the country that don't have pro football teams -- Los Angeles and New York.

How bad are things? The Cincinnati Bengals, 3-13 last season, are off to a 2-0 start. The St. Louis Rams, a 4-12 finisher in 1994, are also 2-0.

The state of pro football in New York is miserable. It might get gloomier before the scene brightens. Next week, the Giants play at Green Bay, a playoff team last season, and then, after a home game against New Orleans, visit San Francisco, last year's Super Bowl champion. The Jets are host to Jacksonville, an expansion team, and then travel to Atlanta, a team that finished 7-9 last season. A loss to the Jaguars would be devastating -- and telling.

The mark of a great football team is that it doesn't make many mistakes, takes advantage of opponents' miscues and then buries them. A good team will overcome mistakes and seldom surrenders a lead. Bad teams have to play flawless games and get a few breaks to win. A lead is never safe with a bad team.

The Jets and the Giants are bad teams right now, and are 0-2 on merit.

The Giants were two different teams in the first and second halves against Kansas City. In the fourth quarter they had 13 yards of offense and 50 yards of penalties. Do good teams do that?

The Jets weren't any better against the Colts. Running back Adrian Murrell dropped an apparent touchdown pass. Running backs Richie Anderson and Ron Moore and quarterback Boomer Esiason all lost fumbles. Receiver Wayne Chrebet dropped a deep pass from Esiason in overtime that would have put the Jets close to field-goal range. The defense left Colts running back Marshall Faulk all alone so he could waltz into the end zone with a 14-yard touchdown reception to tie the score, 24-24, in the fourth quarter.

Those kinds of errors are detrimental to good teams, but devastating for bad teams.

At his news conference yesterday afternoon at Giants Stadium, a somber Dan Reeves made veiled threats about shaking up his lineup, going with the players who play football and not just the ones who look like football players. Reeves said the Giants have given up on the notion that they can close the gap between themselves and the Cowboys in the National Football Conference East.

"We just need a win now," Reeves said.

Losing the first two games of the season has a way of bringing a team face-to-face with reality and sharpening the perspective. The reality for the Giants is that they're not as good as they thought they were. Now that Reeves knows that, he can reshape the team.

"Coach Reeves doesn't mind going back to the drawing board," said receiver Arthur Marshall, who played for Reeves in Denver. "He has no fear of anything. He's going to do what's best for the team to win no matter who doesn't like it."

The reality for the Jets is that they might be a little worse than anyone feared. It's one thing to lose 52-14 to the Dolphins, one of the best teams in the American Football Conference this year. But it's quite another to squander a 24-3 lead against the Colts and lose in overtime -- in the home opener.

Both teams are keeping their cool and saying the right things at this point.

"No one's reaching for the red phone or the panic button," said Giants running back Herschel Walker, who as an Eagle last year finished the season with seven straight losses. "We just have to dig in and claw our way out of this."

Both the Giants and Jets can improve by eliminating turnovers, stupid penalties and boneheaded mistakes. But they are a long way from greatness. The fundamental problem with the Jets and Giants is that they don't have impact players on either offense or defense. Those are the kinds of players who give offensive and defensive coordinators sleepless nights.

Do you think defensive coordinators are looking at the Jets and saying, "If we don't shut down that Wayne Chrebet, the Jets are going to kill us"?

The Giants once had that with Lawrence Taylor. They had it with running backs Rodney Hampton and David Meggett. They may yet have it with rookie Tyrone Wheatley. But they don't have it now. Same for the Jets, whose future stars -- tight end Johnny Mitchell and linebacker Marvin Jones -- have been ineffective because of inconsistency or injury and didn't even play against the Colts.

There is no reason for other teams to fear the Jets and Giants right now. The only danger they pose is to themselves.